NORTHWESTERN NOTES.

Onside kick is wrong answer

October 28, 2001|By Skip Myslenski, Tribune staff reporter.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Northwestern scored with 2 minutes 55 seconds left Saturday to pull within five points of Purdue and leave coach Randy Walker with a choice: kick onside and hope for a recovery or kick deep and hope his defense would hold, force a punt and get his offense the ball in good field position.

He chose the onside kick, but the Boilermakers recovered, ran out the clock and preserved their victory.

"I kicked it around both ways," Walker said in explaining his debatable decision. "We were going into the wind and can't kick well anyway, so they'd gain 10 or 15 yards. Either way we were going to have to get a stop from our defense. So why not take a poke at it?"

The start: The Boilermakers returned a Sam Simmons fumble for a touchdown with just 23 seconds gone, but was the NU receiver down before the ball came loose?

Never too early: The youth movement has begun on the Wildcats' defense, which had been unimpressive even before it was beaten up by the Boilermakers. Derrick Thomas and Colby Clark, two freshmen, started at the tackles, freshman Marvin Ward started at right cornerback and freshman Dominique Price started at strong safety.

After sophomore free safety Mark Roush was beaten deep for Purdue's first offensive touchdown, he was replaced for much of the game by freshman Herschel Henderson.

Quickly noted: Sophomore fullback Gilles Lezi broke his right fibula and left the locker room on crutches. ... The Wildcats' game at Indiana next Saturday was originally scheduled for 11 a.m. to accommodate television. But the networks have passed, so now it will kick off at noon.